Rahul Gandhi to tour flood-hit Uttar Pradesh district

Lucknow, Sep 10 (IANS) Congress general secretary and MP from Amethi, Rahul Gandhi, Thursday will visit Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur district, where over 10,000 people have been displaced due to the floods, party sources said Wednesday.Besides visiting the flood-hit areas, Gandhi will meet patients of Japanese Encephalitis who are admitted to BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur town, over 280 km from here.

He is likely to take stock of the law and order situation in the region after Sunday’s communal violence in Azamgarh district in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

One person was killed and three others were injured Sunday in arson and communal violence that followed the attack on the convoy of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Gorakhpur parliamentarian Yogi Adityanath.

“This will be his (Rahul Gandhi’s) third visit to the district and party workers are prepared to make his programme a success,” Sanjiv Singh, district president of the Congress, told IANS.

“The floods in the Rapti river in Gorakhpur since the onset of monsson has affected and displaced over 10,000 persons,” Ashok Kumar, additional district magistrate, finance, said by phone.

Gandhi will visit the patients suffering from Japanese Encephalitis has claimed 210 lives since June in the region.

“A total of 1,132 people are being treated in various hospitals of the district for detected and similar symptoms of the disease,” Kumar added.

“Senior office bearers of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee, including state president Rita Bahuguna Joshi, will reach Gorakhpur Wednesday,” he added.